GuyRazi
10-11-2003, 06:16 PM
I am taking a course called Psychology of Motor Performance. Besides being a req. 3 credits being taught by first year prof (who has yet to figure out how to teach) and presented in a manner that can't be used by the avg. Kinesiologist and Exercise Scientist in an immediate manner (ex: on game day), something important shined through while I was preparing for midterms.
In the chapter detailing Sports Expertise (I don't have the def. memorized yet so I can't tell what it is, but it deals with performance, skill and motivation) the basic model claims that after 10,000 hours of practice, the avg. person will have achieved Expert status. Given a great coach, a great learning environment, great home environment, encouragement, etc, it can be cut to about 7500 hours. Just for fun, I began to play with the 10,000 hours. Do you realize that at 40hr/week- it would take you 250 YEARS to become an expert! This is likely why some people (Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, etc.) who started literally in infancy are simply better than 99% of the "elite", by the time their careers started they had accumulated far more hours on the curve than most other athletes of comparable skill and had thereby greater neuro-muscular control in the game as well as better internal diaglogue.
Now the problem. Sparring has been and likely will remain THE acid test in the MA, MMA, Combat Sport, etc. world. What else is there, right? But you can't spar 20 hours/week without spending the rest of the week in epson salt! Most of us probably get less than 4 hours sparring/week since we have to put food on the table. At 4hrs/wk, we've got 2500 years to become experts- far more than our projected training lifetime.
Soft-Work, at least as I understand it, is a real first step in the solution to this problem. One can do Soft-Work drills for several hours a week outside of sparring and still make gains in the right direction! This is a gift!
In fact, one of the things seperating beginners, novices, intermediates and experts is not reaction time- all people react in about the same amount of time physiologically (.3-.5 secs) - it is the decision making process and picking up on cues (among other things) that seperates the experts from everyone else. Soft-Work specifcally teaches us to pick up on cues and to have a smoother decision making process so our reaction begins sooner!
Note to self: Do more deadlifts after studying! I think cool things!
Any thoughts?!
Guy
In the chapter detailing Sports Expertise (I don't have the def. memorized yet so I can't tell what it is, but it deals with performance, skill and motivation) the basic model claims that after 10,000 hours of practice, the avg. person will have achieved Expert status. Given a great coach, a great learning environment, great home environment, encouragement, etc, it can be cut to about 7500 hours. Just for fun, I began to play with the 10,000 hours. Do you realize that at 40hr/week- it would take you 250 YEARS to become an expert! This is likely why some people (Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, etc.) who started literally in infancy are simply better than 99% of the "elite", by the time their careers started they had accumulated far more hours on the curve than most other athletes of comparable skill and had thereby greater neuro-muscular control in the game as well as better internal diaglogue.
Now the problem. Sparring has been and likely will remain THE acid test in the MA, MMA, Combat Sport, etc. world. What else is there, right? But you can't spar 20 hours/week without spending the rest of the week in epson salt! Most of us probably get less than 4 hours sparring/week since we have to put food on the table. At 4hrs/wk, we've got 2500 years to become experts- far more than our projected training lifetime.
Soft-Work, at least as I understand it, is a real first step in the solution to this problem. One can do Soft-Work drills for several hours a week outside of sparring and still make gains in the right direction! This is a gift!
In fact, one of the things seperating beginners, novices, intermediates and experts is not reaction time- all people react in about the same amount of time physiologically (.3-.5 secs) - it is the decision making process and picking up on cues (among other things) that seperates the experts from everyone else. Soft-Work specifcally teaches us to pick up on cues and to have a smoother decision making process so our reaction begins sooner!
Note to self: Do more deadlifts after studying! I think cool things!
Any thoughts?!
Guy